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Alright, so back almost to the spring and the start of the switchbacks on the Finger Rock trail sits a large boulder right off to the right of the trail. I see chalk on it from time-to-time and I can clearly pick out a line, but I've never attempted it. Anyone have any beta on it? I can't find anything out there about it and it's curiously missing from most of the local literature...

Jeff

I have never been there but I'd be happy to check it out with you sometime. I've been neglecting climbing lately, which isn't good since I have a 10-day climbing trip coming up in May.

Hey, that could be a plan! I've been slowly working my way back into it, myself. I'll probably never do big wall again, but that was never my niche anyway. Lately, I've mostly been out bouldering. Looking at this boulder from right off the trail I'm guessing it's probably V6-V7...

Jeff MacE wrote:I'm guessing it's probably V6-V7...

Oh, wow. Right now, on a good day, I'm lucky to climb V4. To be honest, I'm hoping to be in the V6-V7 range by mid-May. I'm going on my climbing trip with my younger brother, who is coming out from PA. He is currently a solid V8 climber. I need to do a LOT of training. I think I'm going to hit the climbing gym tonight!

Well, fear not - I may be off on the rating...but from the picture in my mind it's pretty slappy and smooth. I do remember a crack, though, so all hope is not lost!

OK, please explain. It's been years since I climbed and I only know about the standard difficulty scale: 5.8, 5.10, etc. What is the "V" scale you are discussing? Is it confined to free-climbing or bouldering?

The V scale is the boulder rating system used in the U.S.

V0 easiest
to
V16 most difficult

What Joe said. I'll add that V16 = damn-near impossible unless you are super-human!

it's the fun to "watch" category
actually kind of makes you squint sideways and grit your teeth even then

Exactly. V16 is for overachievers and young, super-strong guys who do it because "they can." Somewhere I have a vid of a guy sending a V16 project in a cave (or something) in Australia. It's almost hard to watch and it sounds like he's on the losing end of a battle with the worst constipation known to mankind! Is it an achievement? -No doubt; but I always subscribed to the philosophy that becoming too specialized on boulders, cracks, whatever, takes away the essence of why people learn to climb in the first place: To get somewhere few others have gone.

I've always felt that climbing was just one aspect of mountaineering that I needed in my bag of tricks to get me on top of the real challenges that are out there, summit-wise. The one guy I know who has climbed a V14 can't even haul his own body weight up Seven Falls in Sabino in the heat, let alone a pack up a tougher route, for example. Reading through Climbing, Rock & Ice, etc; it really seems like the mountaineering essence is being lost again, like it was in the '80s when Sport and route manipulation took off. No more pink and yellow spandex, please - I beg you!!!